You are an average high school student. Each day you worry about grades, keeping up with the latest trends, and the ever encroaching shadow that is your future. Now imagine that it is not just your life in your hands, but also the life of a child.

For some students, this is an everyday reality. According to a 2005 survey, 43 out of every 1000 teenage girls becomes pregnant each year in Minnesota. It can often become increasingly hard for teen parents to stay in school. But for South, Roosevelt, and Broadway students, TAPPP is there to help.

The Teenage Pregnancy Parenting Program is available to all students who qualify for help with things such as parenting advice, transportation, and free day care during school hours. The best thing TAPPP can provide however, is support, said senior Lauren Murray, mother of two-year-old Lexi. “[Without TAPPP], I wouldn’t have daycare.”

TAPPP hires trained childcare providers as well as offers students an opportunity to volunteer during the school day. “No one else is going to watch him every day,” said sophomore Guadalupe Vences, speaking of her four-month-old son Jesus. Both Vences and Murray say that they do not believe they would be able to continue their education if TAPPP were not available.

Oftentimes it’s hard for high school students to get enough sleep. Between a frequent lack of motivation, practices every day for school sports, and social events, and it becomes very common that homework doesn’t always get done. For those students who have children, sleep becomes even more rare. Murray says her daughter wakes up at 4:30 AM each day, so she does too. “When she does [go to sleep],” said senior Marisol Cervantes of her one-year-old daughter Destiny Delacruz, “I get to do my homework, but if I make any little noise she wakes up again. Sometimes teachers will give me extra time to do my homework though.”

For senior Rita Anang, getting to school has become a lot more difficult than tackling homework this school year. Anang and her two-year-old daughter Lillian live in north Minneapolis. Anang is a part of the Liberal Arts program and an honor student. With the new school busing zones put in place this year, that should mean she would be provided with a bus to and from school each day. But because of Lillian, the situation becomes more complicated.

Teen mothers are required to ride buses usually set aside for special education students because they are equipped with car seats. “Because I have a baby, I can’t ride that same bus,” said Anang. “I have to ride a special bus so I don’t get one.” It takes Anang two hours to get to school each day, and she must ride both the city bus and the light rail. “I feel like they are being prejudiced,” said Anang. “I am a student, why wouldn’t they give me a bus? It feels like because you have a baby, you don’t deserve this.” TAPPP currently provides Anang with bus tokens so that she can get to school.

“[It is important to give her bus tokens] to insure that Rita continues her academic success,” said Kirstin Johnson-Nixon, the TAPPP social worker, “and so she finishes [high school]. It is her senior year.” Johnson-Nixon has been working with teen parents since 1996, when she started her career at North High School. Anang is working diligently towards getting a school bus and obtaining her driver’s license.

Pregnancy can also be extremely hard on a teen socially, both in public and at home. “I hated going to the Target on Lake Street,” said Guadalupe Vences. “People would just point at me.” Lauren Murray agreed, saying, “People gave me dirty looks, especially girls. Dudes just say it to your face like ‘You’re pregnant!’” Murray, while a student at Washburn, was referred to as a “pregnant whore” by her English teacher during class. She later switched to South for TAPPP and the teacher was terminated after the incident.

When her mother found out she was pregnant, “she never wanted to see me again,” said Maricruz Garcia, a senior with a three month-old daughter named Nataly. “I was gone for six months.” Garcia lived with her boyfriend and his family during that time.

Cervantes said she ran away after learning that she was pregnant. “We [Cervantes and the father of her baby] went to Texas,” she said. “We were gone from January to April. I would have stayed longer, but I had court so I had to come back.” Cervantes’ boyfriend was only able to spend one week with his daughter before being deported.

Another resource available to South students is the school based clinic, where trained health professionals are equipped to provide students with most of the services of a small clinic. Although the clinic does not provide prenatal care nor are they allowed to give health services to the children of students, they can provide students with many family planning products and advice.

The clinic can provide students with Depo-Provera (“the shot”), Ortho Evra (“the patch”), NuvaRing, and the pill, as well as condoms or private conversations about abstinence.  Lori Carlson, a nurse practitioner at the clinic, says that every student who comes to the clinic is asked to fill out a health form that covers sexual history, and that approximately 40% of the clinic’s visits have to do with reproductive health. The clinic sees roughly 200 students per month.

The clinic can diagnose pregnancies, provide prenatal vitamins, and help students and their children get on WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) as well as other programs aimed at providing teen parents with health services.

“Use protection,” warns Cervantes. “Just be protective.” Garcia agrees, adding, “Just think about it [before having sex]. Then think about it again, and then three times, and then four times.” For more information on teen pregnancy and reproductive health, visit the school clinic or your personal health provider.